Father-daughter artists Jack and Jalane Phaneuf aren’t just sharing wall space at their show at the Bridgewater Public Library.They’re sharing a canvas.The exhibit, “Celebration of color and collaborations,” which is up through the end of August in the Flora T. Little Gallery o...

By Rebecca Hyman

The Taunton Daily Gazette, Taunton, MA

By Rebecca Hyman

Posted Aug. 9, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 9, 2012 at 9:17 AM

By Rebecca Hyman

Posted Aug. 9, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 9, 2012 at 9:17 AM

Bridgewater

» Social News

Father-daughter artists Jack and Jalane Phaneuf aren’t just sharing wall space at their show at the Bridgewater Public Library.

They’re sharing a canvas.

The exhibit, “Celebration of color and collaborations,” which is up through the end of August in the Flora T. Little Gallery on the second floor of the library, features works by each of them but also works they did together and works each of them did with students.

Jalane, an art teacher at Raynham Middle School for the past six years, assigned the painting the did with her student as a class project.

“When you’re just starting out, you don’t necessarily have a lot of confidence. But with collaborations, you work off each other and it’s fun,” she said.

They did the painting in turns. She created the background and then handed the canvas over to the student. He added a field of dots and returned it to her. She added waves. He added yellow circles. And so on until it was done.

The result is “Echo” an abstract painting in acrylic, that holds together as a unified work of art, like a jazz improvisation or a lively conversation.

Her father, Jack Phaneuf, an art teacher at Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School for 31 years until his retirement in 2004, might just be the perfect collaborator. He doesn’t seem to have any qualms about sharing artistic control and the limelight.

When he drew up a map of the show, he didn’t bother to note who painted what.

Jack Phaneuf said he has no “ego” as an artist. He paints because he loves the process and hopes to express something about the energy and beauty swirling all around him.

He came up with the name of the exhibit as a tip of the hat to artistic teamwork as well as his love affair with color.

Perhaps the focal point of the show is his series of 12 color-block paintings, “Hexagonal Octagons,” each in a different hue, with its complementary color inside, like a giant nut and bolt.

Together, they make up a fractured color wheel, like musical notes dancing through space to the song of the universe.

“They’re communicating with each other,” he said.

Next to them hangs “The Blue Portal,” its lines simple, a glowing blue rectangle, with soft edges, inside a dark blue background.

Jack Phaneuf said it’s a “spiritual painting.” But he doesn’t try, nor desire, to nail down its meaning any more precisely than that.

“I’m very comfortable living with mystery. Those people who try to figure out what everything means will be frustrated all their lives. Life is not logical. Life is a mystery,” he said.

Page 2 of 3 - Jack Phaneuf’s “logo” is an exclamation point alongside a question mark, with the dots serving as the eyes in a smiley face.

“To me life is ‘Wow! Huh?’ I’m still a little kid. I get excited about stuff but I still have questions,” he said.

Perhaps that’s what made him such a beloved teacher.

He built whimsical, fantastical animals with his B-R students, like the oversized fish “Vac” on display at the library. When B-R couldn’t afford supplies like wood and stone, Phaneuf became a master of using “junk” like paper and paste and transforming it into works of art — and “The kids never wanted to stop!” he said.

“After about 10 years of teaching, I realized what I am is a fire starter. I loved the kids and wanted to get them excited about art and life,” said Phaneuf, who still teaches art — this time to high school students at Stonehill College as part of Project Contemporary Competitiveness and from his home studio in Bridgewater, North Star Studio.

He still gets goose bumps when he thinks about the time one of his students said to him, “Mr. Phaneuf, you’re not just an art teacher, but a teacher of life.”

That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything that makes him happy, he said. Just the opposite. It means even that which is generally classified as “nothing” brings him happiness.

He gleaned the incite from teaching drawing. When you’re struggling to draw something hard, like a hand, if you instead draw the spaces around it, you’ll back into the image, he said.

“I’ve come to understand that the nothing is everything. When you understand this, things become very rich and full,” Phaneuf said.

Phaneuf said he hopes people enjoy “the colors and the playful patterns” in his work.

He strives to utilize what he calls “random organization” in his paintings to mirror the natural world, say a tree or the human face, which are highly individual but also highly structured.

Too random, and a work of art doesn’t make any sense. Too organized, and it’s boring, he said.

“I try to duplicate what I think is the most beautiful part of nature,” Phaneuf said.

But mostly, he said, “I don’t think. I just paint.”

In 1986, Phaneuf created the now legendary “Rainbow Snake” kite, a colorful dragon-like critter that flew at Bridgewater Fourth of July parades and hung on the ceiling of the library for many years prior to the renovation.

It’s 100-feet long because he wanted it to look big even soaring way overhead, he said.

Page 3 of 3 - He didn’t know if it would work. But sure enough it took flight.

“What a thrill to see it fly,” he said.

Jack and Jalane Phaneuf will be on hand for an artists’ reception at the Bridgewater Public Library, 15 South St., on Monday, Aug. 13 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The gallery is open during regular library hours: Monday and Tuesday 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. and Wednesday and Thursday 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. For more information call (508) 697-3331.